“A giant, indeed. This castle is a place of horrors.” Astrid's hand crept to Bradan, holding his arm.
Keeping in the shadows, Bradan studied the Great Man of the Cats. Was this the man who opened the Book of Dark Earth to release the Cu-saeng? Was this the leader of a band of Norse raiders? Or was this somebody or something else? Was this the Cu-saeng?
“Melcorka is not here,” Bradan said. “If she were, there would be blood and fur on the ground, and the Great Man would have his tail trimmed.”
Astrid nodded. “We move on, then.” Withdrawing from the chamber, they heard scurrying feet and shrank into the shadows. A dozen women passed, all in dark clothes and with the ears of cats attached to their heads. Leading them was a man Bradan recognised at once.
“Chattan,” Bradan said.
“What's that he's carrying?” Astrid asked, nodding to the long bundle in Chattan's arms.
“A sword,” Bradan said. As he looked, the covering slipped off, revealing the hilt. Bradan shivered. “That's Defender. Melcorka's sword. So where is Melcorka?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“If that is Melcorka's sword, where is Melcorka?” Bradan repeated.
“Would she willingly part with her sword?” Astrid watched as Chattan and the women strode along the corridor.
Bradan shook his head. “No.”
“Then she is dead.” Astrid said.
“No.” Bradan said. “Melcorka is not dead.”
“Nobody is invulnerable,” Astrid said. “For every warrior, there is somebody faster, more skilful or luckier.”
“I want to find Melcorka.” Bradan said.
“You might not even find her body,” Astrid said. “I think we should retrieve Melcorka's sword. If it is as powerful as I've heard, it will help us get out of here.”
Bradan watched as Chattan carried the sword away, with his women clustered around him. “We'll follow Chattan. If we are lucky, he may tell us where Melcorka is.”
They had not far to go before Chattan stopped at a low wooden door. He fiddled inside his cloak for a key, opened the door and disappeared inside, to reappear a few moments later without the sword.
“Wait until they've gone,” Bradan said. “We know which direction Melcorka is in, anyway.”
“What?” Astrid looked puzzled. “How do we know that?”
“She will be in the direction from where Chattan came.” Bradan had taken control. “We'll try that way first.”
Glancing at the door where Defender was, Astrid hesitated. “We'd be better with a weapon.”
“You pick the lock, then,” Bradan said. “I'll find Melcorka.” He strode on without waiting for Astrid, who followed a few moments later.
“The door is securely locked.”
“Don't you have a spell to open it?” Bradan asked as his worry for Melcorka overcame his growing affection for Astrid.
“I'm not a witch,” Astrid said.
“I know.” Bradan was immediately contrite. “That was a cruel thing to say. I'm sorry.”
They were in a maze of corridors and passages, with strange smells and sounds.
“Cenel Bearnas!”
The words rang out from beneath them, echoing in the narrow passage.
“That's Melcorka!” Bradan raised his voice. “Melcorka!”
“Cenel Bearnas!” Melcorka's family war cry rang louder as Bradan ran towards the sound. Although he was a man of peace, with no weapon except his staff, he crashed open the door of the chamber where he heard Melcorka's shout.
“Melcorka!”
When Bradan burst in, he saw half a dozen cat-women holding Melcorka on the edge of a pit. Bradan saw little else as more women looked around, some with the hideous hooked claws attached to their hands, all wearing cloaks with cat-eared hoods. “I'm here, Melcorka!” Swinging his staff, Bradan knocked two of the women backwards, thrust at another and pulled Melcorka back from the lip of the pit.
“I thought you were dead!” Melcorka wrestled a woman to the ground with a move she had learned in the Chola Empire.
“I'm not.” Bradan cracked another woman on the head with his staff. “Astrid saved me. She's around somewhere.”
“Back to back!” Melcorka ordered. “Make for the door.” She grinned at Bradan. “It looks like it's just you and me, Bradan!”
“That's as it should be!” Bradan grunted as a woman landed a shrewd kick in his stomach, winced as a set of claws opened up a wound in his left arm and thrust his staff against a woman's throat. “I think there are too many of these devils, this time, Mel.”
“Cenel Bearnas!” Melcorka yelled, staggering as a woman ducked low to slash at her legs while another jabbed at her eyes. Once the initial shock of Bradan's arrival wore off, the cat-women pressed hard. Fighting desperately, Melcorka and Bradan retreated to the lip of the pit, where the cats set up a hideous howling and raised their claws in expectation of food.
“At least we're together.” Melcorka ducked, swung her hip and threw a cat-woman down to the ground.
The rush came by surprise as the prisoners charged the flank of the cat-women, swinging their chains as makeshift weapons.
“That's the way!” Melcorka yelled. “Cenel Bearnas!” Grabbing the nearest cat-woman, she tore off her claws and slashed at the next.
Faced by a renewed attack by Melcorka and with the unexpected assault by the ex-prisoners, the cat-women wavered, turned and fled, leaving Chattan alone, his instructions unheeded.
“Fight them!” Chattan yelled. “Throw them to the cats.”
Thrusting the end of his staff against Chattan”s throat, Bradan propelled him to the lip of the pit. Melcorka looked over the edge, where the king-cat was waiting.
“You're an unpleasant sort of fellow,” Melcorka said. “But you did not kill Bradan.”
“You're brave now,” Chattan jeered. “You won't be so brave when the Butcher comes back for you.”
“Oh?” Melcorka pretended unconcern, although the mention of the name set her heart racing. She could not forget the humiliation of her defeat on the Bass Rock. “I didn't realise he was even gone.”
“He'll be back,” Chattan said, “and then all of Alba and the Jarldom will rue they were ever born.”
“I'll be ready for him,” Melcorka bluffed. “When is he coming back?”
Chattan”s yellow eyes narrowed shrewdly. “You don't know, do you?” He looked over his shoulder at the waiting cats. “He won't be
